Army wearing NECU

[Baz]

The NCD being fire resistant is exactly the reason why everybody onboard wears them regardless of original element, with the exception of RCAF personnel allowed to wear flight suits - which are also fire resistant.

Fire resistant being the operative term, not fire proof. We also learned from the Sea King crash of 12425 in St John, NB that most fire resitant material is useless (and in some cases counterproductive) without the proper clothing under it; which is why flight crew are always supposed to wear the cotton long underwear which is a turtle neck when flying.

We were briefed, with pictures, of the injuries the nav sustained in the fire. You could clearly see where the life preserver ended at the shoulders, and then where the T-Shirt ended (as he wasn't wearing the full cotton), and then the gloves started... Fire resistant materials dissipate the heat over a larger area by melting.

Which begs the question... why doesn't the navy need to wear the same when at sea, if it's because of fire resistance. I was of the firm belief that if we ever went to action stations or fire fighting for real I'd definitely be wearing my flight suit (obviously with bunker gear over as required), and if we ever went to muster stations I'd be showing up with my LPSV and neither the floater coat nor the war bags.

Thinking about the crash of 425, the anti-flash hood and gloves for the navy are probably better than the helmet and flight gloves. I'm not sure you'd want even more fabric around your neck, after the turtle neck, flight suiy (or poopy suit, rubber neck back then, which would be real nice in a fire), LPSV, helmet plunked down on top, liferaft backpack under the LPSV, and harness over it all.

The couple times I got told by some PO in the Ops Room (that's where we closed up as the non duty crew nav) to tuck my flight suit into my boots (including once as a "subbie") I responded that if it's ok like this sitting on top of 4000lbs of JP-5 in a crash I think it's ok here. Although, in hindsight, I think they new that, and were just trying to get the dumb aircrew officer to look like an idiot.

Trust me, there were a lot easier ways to make me look like an idiot back then...

 

[Halifax Tar]

Fire resistant being the operative term, not fire proof. We also learned from the Sea King crash of 12425 in St John, NB that most fire resitant material is useless (and in some cases counterproductive) without the proper clothing under it; which is why flight crew are always supposed to wear the cotton long underwear which is a turtle neck when flying.

We were briefed, with pictures, of the injuries the nav sustained in the fire. You could clearly see where the life preserver ended at the shoulders, and then where the T-Shirt ended (as he wasn't wearing the full cotton), and then the gloves started... Fire resistant materials dissipate the heat over a larger area by melting.

Which begs the question... why doesn't the navy need to wear the same when at sea, if it's because of fire resistance. I was of the firm belief that if we ever went to action stations or fire fighting for real I'd definitely be wearing my flight suit (obviously with bunker gear over as required), and if we ever went to muster stations I'd be showing up with my LPSV and neither the floater coat nor the war bags.

Thinking about the crash of 425, the anti-flash hood and gloves for the navy are probably better than the helmet and flight gloves. I'm not sure you'd want even more fabric around your neck, after the turtle neck, flight suiy (or poopy suit, rubber neck back then, which would be real nice in a fire), LPSV, helmet plunked down on top, liferaft backpack under the LPSV, and harness over it all.

The couple times I got told by some PO in the Ops Room (that's where we closed up as the non duty crew nav) to tuck my flight suit into my boots (including once as a "subbie") I responded that if it's ok like this sitting on top of 4000lbs of JP-5 in a crash I think it's ok here. Although, in hindsight, I think they new that, and were just trying to get the dumb aircrew officer to look like an idiot.

Trust me, there were a lot easier ways to make me look like an idiot back then...

The NECU is that base layer material, its what you have under your bunker gear.

NECU is really just for flash resistance. Like flash gear for the body.

We don't fight fires in NECU outside of rapid response/survey and what you can do with an extinguisher. Then back away close down the space and compartment and inform pass the info for the attack team. Either from a DW or SB, depending on scenario.

Also I was informed this week NECU is now to be referred to as NCDs. Glad we continue to tackle the big issues of the day